SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande says a law preventing people from insulting a sitting president is more than necessary because white South Africans have shown very little respect for blacks and their cultures.

Nzimande became the first senior tripartite alliance leader to publicly back a call for the so-called insult law yesterday, saying whites have pushed their black counterparts to the limit with their disrespectful treatment of President Jacob Zuma.

Suggesting that whites respected only Jewish and Afrikaner cultures, Nzimande said the free-for-all lampooning of the country’s president, by artist Brett Murray and other like-minded people, threatened to undo social cohesion and unity brought by the new dispensation in 1994.

But constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos believes such a law would not work in South Africa as it would be in conflict with the constitution and the rule of law, which is the principle that no one is above the law or more equal than others.

The higher education and training minister, who is a close Zuma ally, was speaking to The Star after his briefing to the National Assembly about matters related to his portfolio.

His statement came days after the SACP in KwaZulu-Natal called for the enactment of a law to protect the office of the president following a “barrage of insults directed at President Zuma”.

SACP provincial secretary Themba Mthembu said the discussion had been prompted by attacks on Zuma, including the way in which he was portrayed in the controversial painting The Spear.
Nzimande warned that people and Zuma’s supporters would “sooner or later” reach boiling point.

“It’s like we don’t have a culture. I’m Jewish you know, I’m Afrikaans, but if you’re black African, you are not supposed to have a culture, and that’s a problem. In fact, the danger of this thing, with the path it is pointing to, we can undo the 1994 deal very easily and undermine the social cohesion,” said Nzimande.

He said people “can differ with me and you can criticise me as you like, but disrespect, that is not acceptable”.
He claimed “we are being undermined by whites”. Read further…

Johannesburg – The DA Youth will lay a complaint against the leader of the SA Students’ Congress (Sasco) at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University over a tweet on Helen Zille’s Nkandla visit.

The complaint was made to the Human Rights Commission.

“This tweet is yet another incident in a long history of racist hate speech uttered by Sasco leaders, who continually seek to polarise and divide South Africans along racial lines,” Democratic Alliance Youth leader Makashule Gana said in a statement on Monday.

The university’s Sasco leader Sitha Gqomfa tweeted on Saturday:

“DA mischievous to visit Nkandla they will die KZN akudlawa pha and they must die like cockroaches!!!”

Gana said the tweet was “clear” incitement to violence.

Opposition leader Zille led a party delegation to Zuma’s KwaZulu-Natal residence on Sunday, but was stopped by several hundred African National Congress supporters.

Police denied permission to Zille and her entourage to proceed along the road to the residence, citing safety reasons.

The crowd of ANC supporters, which eventually numbered between 800 and 1000 supporters, blocked the road to the residence.

Gqomfa said the DA was the “enemy” and had to be treated as such.

“The DA acted against all morality by going to Nkandla. They knew that they would be met by ANC supporters there. They should have found another way to take up the issue, not going to Nkandla to incite violence.”

The DA wanted to visit Zuma’s private residence, where an upgrade, reportedly costing over R200 million and funded with taxpayers’ money, was in progress. Source

Cape Town – Expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has praised Zimbabwe as an inspiration to Africa, saying South Africa has a lot to learn from that country, a report said on Monday.

According to Herald online, Malema who travelled to Zimbabwe last week to attend the wedding of Zanu-PF youth league members said the country was “wholly independent and divested itself of external control”.

“We are coming here to Zimbabwe not because we are running away from problems, but to come and gain strength because what you have achieved is an inspiration to Africa.

“Don’t listen to imperialist newspapers. You have achieved a lot. You are running your own country, you have been managing your own affairs and you are not controlled by foreigners. That is what we need in South Africa. Read further…

Cosatu general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi says revolution in South Africa is no longer a distant reality, as the country sits on a powder keg that is slowly approaching detonation. He was delivering the annual Dullah Omar Human Rights Annual Lecture in Johannesburg last night.

Vavi has decried deteriorating inequality, poverty and unemployment, which he says are in many respects worse than they were at the dawn of democracy in 1994.

He has warned the country’s rich against fooling themselves into believing that their reign is permanent.

“The hammer blow of a revolution is no longer a distant reality. Those who today conveniently claim neutrality and sit on the fence whilst blatant injustice is being committed on the people, will not be spared from the wrath of the people. When the poor decide to rise one day, the champions of neutrality will be reminded that neutrality is a best friend to oppression,” says Vavi
South Africans achieved a “political breakthrough” in 1994, but failed to achieve a similar breakthrough in economic transformation 18-years on.
He also says that South Africans are “rapidly forgetting” the traditions created during the fight for democracy. “We are rapidly forgetting the traditions of our movement, which valued service to the people above any thought of personal advancement,” says Vavi.

“The squalid morality of the capitalists, based on me-first and survival of the fittest is seeping even into our own revolutionary movement, dragging in its wake huge problems of factionalism and even assassination of opponents and whistle-blowers.”

He says South Africans achieved a “political breakthrough” in 1994, but failed to achieve a similar breakthrough in economic transformation 18-years on. “There must be something burning. This is not a trade union problem. This is the challenge that South Africa as a whole must deal with.” – Additional reporting by Sapa

The white Afrikaner victim of the latest shooting in Muldersdrift, André Jordaan (50), was taken to Baragwanath Hospital, but was not operated on, despite having seven bullets in his body. After having been shot on Thursday evening by a marauding gang of black robbers, the hospital in Soweto promised to do an emergency operation by Friday morning.

However, the operation was not performed and Jordaan died on Saturday night at 22.05. His family, whom Jordaan had literally been taking bullets for while protecting them “like a hero”, is now anxious to know what went wrong. His son Shaun told Beeld newspaper: “We just want to know what went wrong and are desperate to get answers from the hospital. My dad was still quite strong after the shooting until Saturday afternoon.” Read further…